


Redemption

by Word_Architect



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 15:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3139292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Word_Architect/pseuds/Word_Architect
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story was inspired by a good friend and her writing genius. And per the request of another friend, JR32, I publish this story.  JR's help in editing has allowed me to present this semi-final draft as mistaken free as possible.  Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Redemption

It had been months since the banishment and it had bothered Rodimus, from the get go. He shouldn’t have banished Drift, he knew that but he was trying to make it all seem ”real”. But taking his badge, humiliating him… That was too much and Rodimus realized that now. 

The Lost Light had been back on Cybertron for a few days and the meetings and interviews had been incessant. Luckily Rodimus had Ultra Magnus, who listened intently while his friend and captain was distracted. Now both leaders of the Lost Light made their way out of Starscream’s office.

“I’m gonna find him, Magnus.” Rodimus broke the silence.

“Find who?” Ultra Magnus, the former Enforcer of the Tyrest Accords, looked at his friend curiously.

“Drift… He has to be here. Of all the places, Rodion, the gutters… it’s more familiar to him.” Rodimus glanced up at Magnus.

The taller mech glanced over at Rodimus, brow ridge raised. “You don’t know for certain if he is here. Rodion is a big place…”

As the two bots exited the stuffy confines of Starscream’s Headquarters, Rodimus stopped, his familiar “find trouble” grin on his face. “I trust my gut Magnus. He’s here… well there, I know it. I need to make things right.” 

Ultra Magnus, never one to follow guts and “feels”, shifted uncomfortably on his pedes. “Then, I’ll go with you.”  
“No, this is my fault and I need to fix it on my own. You need to stay here, oversee the ship’s overhaul and deal with Starscream, Bumblebee, and the stirring issues between the two.”

“Rodimus, I’m a solider not a leader.” Ultra Magnus protested.

“Exactly. And I’m ordering you to over see all this.” Rodimus waved his arm towards the Lost Light. “I shouldn’t be too long and I’ll keep in touch… promise.” 

Ultra Magnus, ever the good soldier, nodded his helm and both mechs looked over the horizon, towards the rising sun. The light casting long shadows over the landscape and silhouetting both.   
********

Rodimus felt relieved and alive for the first time since banishing Drift. He was happier and the crew could see it. He closed the shuttle doors and began inputting the take off launch codes. ‘I’m coming Drift… I just hope you will forgive me.’ He thought as he deftly moved his servos over the console.

“Shuttle Hope you are cleared for departure, Vector to course 213 mark 717 due to an ionic storm on your previous course.” The voice of Sunstreaker filled the shuttle’s cockpit. “Wish you’d let me go with, best pilot ‘round ya know…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know Sunny.” Rodimus’ voice was gleeful, filled with hope. “Maybe next time, heh?” Rodimus finished punching in the course change and responded, “Course change laid in, new heading 213 mark 717. Don’t wait up.” Rodimus chuckled and closed the channel as the shuttle rose up from the shuttle bay floor and the large doors to his front parted. Bright light from the sun slowly filled the cockpit.

As soon as the doors were open fully, the shuttle maneuvered out and began its trek towards Rodion. Even with the course change the duration of the trip shouldn’t be more than 45 minutes, but for Rodimus, it was like an eternity.   
********

The gunmetal grey shuttle hovered over a small clearing, between two dilapidated buildings, in Rodion. “Good a place as any to land…” Rodimus spoke to himself as he pressed the console. Dirt, dust, and loose pieces of scrap blew up and around the shuttle, clouding his view from the main view port. With a slight thud and shake, the shuttle was safely on the ground.

Spinning in his chair, Rodimus jumped up and grabbed a small pack. Inside the pack there was extra energon, a medi-kit and most importantly, a new Autobot badge. With gleeful anticipation, the red and orange bot ran out of the shuttle, securing it before transforming.

The area erupted in the sound of transforming and folding metal as he lept into the air. In an instant, Rodimus’ chest rose up as helm ducked in, under it. Both arms fall into his side, locking into place. Simultaneously, his legs rotated into position and his spoiler slid down, locking in place as well. As his frame got closer to the ground, his wheels locked into place and just as they touched the ground, his engine revved loudly and he sped off. 

“Where to look?” Rodimus raced down the debris-laden streets of Rodion, so far not seeing anyone, which was no surprise for him. After Cybertron went dark, the planet was evacuated and he was pretty sure no one was coming back here, to Rodion except Drift. 

While he drove, he thought about past conversation he had had with Drift, with the crew. Like a beacon in his mind, he remembered something Ratchet had said to him. “Ratchet had worked in Rodion, in the Dead End before… he knew or remembered seeing Drift there while he was there…” Rodimus spoke to himself, processing everything. “Guess that’s a place to start, Ratchet and Drift seemed to be friends.”  
********

Drift didn’t know why he came back here, of all the places but he did now he was in need of energon. He had ransacked the old medi-center in Rodion when he first arrived and only found scraps of old, stale energon. Not enough to sustain him at full power. 

During his ransacking, he had found two vials of Syk and so far, his will power held out and he refused to partake in them. He, however, was becoming desperate. He sat in the corner of the shabby building not too far from the medi-center, knees pulled up to his chest and he stared longingly at the two vials in his servos. 

He could here the voices, the sounds of the dealers, from the days long since past. “It’s just one vile, it wont kill you kid.” But the stronger voices, the voices of people who cared: Gasket, Wing, Ratchet rang louder in his helm. “You’re better than that, you don’t need it… Look at all you’ve accomplished since moving past all this…” 

“S-so tired… weak…” His frail voice broke the silence and darkness around him. His thoughts were broken as he thought he heard a rumble somewhere outside. He shook his helm, “Just your mind playing tricks on you again.” His spark nonetheless raced with anticipation of a possible confrontation. A confrontation in which he was ill prepared for.   
********

Just as quickly as he had transformed into his alt mode, Rodimus stood tall, in front of the run down medi-center. He immediately tried to run scans but ever since entering Rodion, the shuttle and his personal sensors had been glitching. 

He moved forward, prying the doors open to the medi-center. Pulling out his torchlight, he arced the light from one side of the front room to the other. “Drift? Ya in here buddy?” 

The red and orange captain stepped up and over a large pile of scrap and entered the back room, the treatment room. Again his moved the light back and forth. Moving more into the room, he knelt down, next to a recent break in the dust. The sight of the disrupted dust caused a smile to crease his lips. He stood up, brushing off his servos and scanning the room again.

Rodimus exited the medi-center, the same we he had entered and looked for any other signs of Drift, of anyone. “We do this old school then…”  
********  
There was no denying it now, Drift had heard it, albeit muffled, a transformation sequence. Drift had no strength to investigate, however, he reached up wrapping his servo around the hilt of the Great Sword. The touch, the memory that Wing once held the same sword, gave him some strength. 

He pulled the Sword out fully, resting it on his lap, looking at the small hole, in which he entered. He would be ready, he would not be hurt again, and he was no longer a defenseless and needy buymech. With one servo on the hilt of the sword and the other gripping the two vials of Syk, he waited.   
********

The minutes ticked away like hours and patience was a virtue that Rodimus didn’t really have. “Maybe Magnus was right… maybe he’s not here…” Rodimus shook his helm, ready to turn around and leave. Something, a glint from the corner of his optics caught his attention. He turned to fully face where the glint came from, a small shack-like building, at the end of a narrow and dark alley.

Shrugging, he moved forward, down the narrow and dark alley. Pulling out his blaster quietly and moving as silently as he could, without his torchlight. He could make out a small hole I the shack, no door but a hole. ‘Nice and easy Rodimus. Be ready…’ He spoke quietly in his mind. As he approached the hole, there was a loud crash! 

The crash made him jump and aim his blaster at the hole, until he realized he was the cause of the crash. He looked down and noticed that he had kicked a piece of metal siding into the wall of the shack.   
********

Drift’s spark was threatening to jump out of it’s housing when he heard the loud crash. There was no denying it was not his imagination. He steadied his intakes and vents, finding inner peace, like Wing had taught him. He gripped the hilt of the sword tighter, his optics fixed on the hole as he stood up quietly.

As the hole and what little light came through it was filled with an unknown form, Drift brought the Great Sword down swiftly, resting the sharp blade against the intruder’s neck. “I suggest you leave.”

“D-Drift?” The voice… familiar but how? Why? Drift couldn’t believe it.

“Rodimus?” The sword mechs voice filled with curiosity.   
********

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Rodimus held up both servos, including the one with his blaster. “It is you!” 

Drift, lowered and replaced the sword into it’s back carrier. “H-how did you find me?” 

“I remembered you said you were the happiest here with Basket or Clamp It… something like that. Then I remembered you and ratchet go a long ways back…”

“It was Gasket.” Drift responded simply.

“Yeah, yeah… that’s what I meant, Gasket.” 

Drift could feel his strength waning and he sat back down in the corner, “What do you want?”

Rodimus frowned as Drift sat down, not amused or happy to see Rodimus. “To bring you home.”

“Home? You’re kidding right?” Though the room was dark the look of incredulity on Drift’s face could be seen. 

“Yeah, back to the Lost light. We are on Cybertron now, a lot has changed. We need you… I need you.”

“I told you I would take the fall, over Overlord b-but… I… wasn’t…I j-just-“

Rodimus got the point and he sighed, “I know. That’s all on me and I don’t expect you to forgive anything or me. I told the crew the truth… not that that helps or anything but I’m trying, dammit I’m really trying to make things better.” Rodimus sat next to Drift and pulled out some Energon from the bag, handing it to Drift, “I take it energon is hard to come by…” 

“I don’t need your charity, Rodimus or your pity.” Drift pushes the energon back towards Rodimus, though all he wanted to do was chug it all down right there.

“This isn’t charity or pity. This is me trying to make right all the wrongs I’ve done and I know some energon and words wont change or fix it. I get it, if you hate me.”

Now it was Drift’s turn to sigh, “I don’t hate you Rodimus, I was hurt. I expected to get scolded or even brig time for taking the fall but not… “Drift reaches up touching his chest where his brand once was, “Not all this. I’ve always looked up to Rodimus, wanted to be like you, to make you proud.” 

Drift’s words broke Rodimus’ spark more. Look at how he treated his friend, a genuine friend. “Awe Drift… I’ve always been proud of you. You’ve never done anything to not make me proud.” Rodimus thought about his next words, “I always wanted to be like you. You’ve been through so much and come so far.” 

“Not far enough, apparently.” Drift held out his servo with the Syk vials, “I found these in the medi-ceter…”

Rodimus looked down and recognized the vials, “but you didn’t take them.”  
Drifts shakes his helm, “I couldn’t… I don’t know why but I couldn’t… I wanted to. Wanted the pain, the hunger to leave me but…”

“You are stronger and have come a long ways from those day.” Rodimus completed the sentence and again hands Drift the Energon, “Take it, and drink it. My shuttle is not far from here. I’ll leave the energon for you and get the shuttle, so you don’t have to walk far. It’s time to come home Drift.”

The tears welled up in his optics as Drift listened to Rodimus speak. He knew he should have been angry but he could hear the sincerity in Rodimus’ voice, the genuine care. And for the first time, in a very, very long time, Drift felt needed, wanted. That he was apart of something bigger than himself. He managed to nod his helm and in a raspy voice respond, “I’ll be waiting.”


End file.
